Car washing machines usually incorporate a drier which includes a blower and a nozzle arranged to direct air under pressure against the body of an automobile as the washing is finished so as to strip the water from the surface of the automobile body. In some instances, the owner and operator of a car wash will have someone available to wipe down the automobile body to finish the drying process, but in some self-serve operations, no wiping down is provided.
One extremely important factor to both the customers and to the operator of a car wash is to minimize any marking or damage to the surface of the automobile body, and the need to minimize such marking or damage has been emphasized recently because of the extremely high expense in repairing automobile body damage and the extreme cost of new autombiles. Such damage or markings may have to be repaired, at great expense, by the operator of the car wash.
In car washes as they were first created, driers usually used a rigid nozzle or a series of rigid nozzles, the location of which was controlled by rollers which actually engaged the surface of the automobile body and rolled along the body as the car moved through the drying station so that the nozzle would be positioned closely to the surface of the automobile body. One extreme disadvantage of this type of arrangement is the damage that would be caused occasionally by the rollers and the nozzle as the automobile progressed through the drying station.
Certain patents show such types of rigid nozzles and rollers which engage the automobile body, and they are identified as U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,440,157; 2,949,678; 3,224,108; 3,442,027; 3,570,042; 3,780,448 and 3,877,107. In some instances, rigid nozzles have actually engaged the surface of the automobile body, increasing the likelihood of causing markings and damage to the body, as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,263,341.
A drier using flexible sheet material in the form of thin plastic or plastic coated cloth is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,161,801 wherein flexible bags of generally rectangular cross section incorporate nozzle structures arranged to blow the air in a direction opposite to that in which the automobile is traveling through the car wash. The patent illustrates metal parts at the nozzle in order to maintain the nozzle shape. In one form of commercial device incorporating the type of rectangular bag disclosed in the patent, a rigid external plastic nozzle structure at the tip end of the bag regularly engages the automobile bodies being dried, increasing the likelihood of marking or damage to the body surface.
In another drier of U.S. Pat. No. 3,600,224, cloth tubes or sleeves extend from a manifold, and the sleeves whip around as the air is discharged from the open ended sleeves. Such whipping sleeves are particularly damaging to surfaces of automobile bodies and the small attachments such as antennas and mirrors.
Another form of drier is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,448,834 and utilizes tandemly arranged canvas ducts extending downwardly from an air manifold and each of the canvas ducts has a canvas crosshead which engages the body and rubs along the body as air is discharged through a laced slot. Metal grommets reinforce the holes for the lacing and will undoubtedly engage and rub along portions of the automobile body.